Trial and error (4): Potato cup frittata

I have to admit that though I have learnt to make quite a few dishes for the daily meals, I have been afraid to go beyond that. This is mainly because while the eating part is quick, cooking generally takes much longer. So when trying something new a build up is created which can be misleading like an expected blockbuster film which turns out to have gone all wrong. There have been quite a few occasions when this is exactly what has happened to me. The fact that I am an emotional cook makes it worse. If my pooris don't rise, chapatis are not soft or biryani is not perfect you will find tears dripping down my face.

The good thing about living in Providence is that unlike Uppsala in Sweden, we can get food home delivered. So there is something to fall back on. Not that being forced to do this will make me feel any better. So with a little trepidation I decided to step out of the snack zone to dinner service. However, as always I chose a recipe that would be easy to deliver and would have an appearance and a taste that I could recognize to know for sure of its success or failure.

For the Christmas lunch one of the dishes that my landlady had made was the frittata. In the first Masterchef USA mystery box challenge the contestants were asked to cook something stunning using an egg. A frittata made it to the top three. As I searched over the internet I found that this is really an Italian omelette which makes use of all kinds of filling ingredients like potatoes, spinach, broccoli, zuchini, bacon and ham but obviously not all at the same time. It may be cooked on the stove or in the oven. You can serve it as a breakfast, lunch or dinner along with a salad.

How I did it?
I was all set to make a traditional frittata (like a big pizza circle) on Saturday night when I found a different way of cooking it inside small potato cups as shown by Averagebetty (click to see recipe). I used sautéed onions and green capsicum with coriander leaves but avoided the dressing up with the baby tomatoes. I also refrained from adding cumin powder and fresh cream.

        Finally I served the frittats with a classic salad in drizzled with vinegar and a cheesy pasta. The latter was bought from the market as I was not sure if the frittatas on their own would be filling for tummies used to heavy Indian dinners.

Notes on cooking technique.
Though I drained the potato shreds of water I found that still some remained at the end. I am not sure if this caused any adverse affect. I spread them around the muffin cups with fingers more easily than a spoon. I perhaps used more shreds than were necessary as the base seemed to remain soft.

         The video showed a green chilli paste being added to the egg mix. I used two chillies to make a paste but as it did not become as fine as I wanted, I added some water to get the chilliness into it. I then drained off the chilli bits and used the water to spice up the egg mix.

          When filling the potato cups with the egg mix it looked like there were too many veggies and little of the egg itself. But on baking the frittatas rose and the combination came out right. For removing the frittatas I slid a knife around in a circle. But because the muffin tray was not non-stick some of the potato shreds on the base did not come out. At the same time it wasn't much of a struggle or cause for frustration.

My husband's verdict.
He was very happy with the end result so much so that he made me give some to the other two residents of our building, one of them being our landlady who was the inspiration behind trying the frittata recipe in the first place.

Here is the photo of the dinner plate. Enjoy!

Potato cup frittatas for dinner